Monday, September 7, 2009

There used to be a show on TV, I think it was back in the mid-60's, that starred Don Adams and Barbara Feldon as Agents 86 and 99 respectively. The name of their spy team was “Control”. Their nemesis was “Chaos”. The show ran for about 5 years; it apparently had quite a following, mostly due to the remarkable chemistry between the 2 actors, and the absolute absurdity of the bumbling Agent 86. I recall it was one of my family's favorite shows. I also remember my dad being pretty pissed when it went off the air. Such is the life-span of slap-stick comedy.

Now, some 35 years later, the show has popped up again. This time, however, it isn't on Prime Time. This time has been resurrected by way of a brilliant woman (hereafter to be called 'The Reverend Mischief'...with great affection, of course!) who leads a most unusual kind of 'ministry' that encompasses not spies nor religious fanatics, but instead, people who want to remember just who they are and why they're here. It's a very different kind of teaching from those I was raised with; fun and light and incredibly inspiring. The Reverend has certainly got a special talent.

One of my sisters (hereafter to be called 'Letizia', also with the greatest affection and a giggle) attends these weekly gatherings and, each Monday, after she's had some time to 'digest' the previous day's insights, calls me to share the teachings and her enthusiasm with me. It's the highlight of my Mondays. We spend an hour talking about what the darling Reverend Mischief has offered and then discuss our own insights regarding the topic. It's fun. It's also very thought-provoking stuff. The kind of stuff that lights a fire under the ass of my often-absent Muse who seems to be spending more time at the pool than anywhere else. The little sun-goddess on holiday.

So today, when Letizia called to share the yesterday's musings, she said that the Reverend had used the old TV show as her launching pad into the mysteries of Control and Chaos. Even before hearing what she said, I was completely blown away by the creativity of this woman's unusual approach to spiritual growth. Very freakin' cool. And clever. And so outside the box.

I listened intently to her description of the talk, allowing no commentary to escape my lips nor any kind of outside thoughts to distract me from the whole message. I wanted to hear how she went from Maxwell Smart, the bumbling Agent 86, to spiritual enlightenment, or, as I like to call it, Remembering Me.

The gist of the whole message was this: we have this idea that we're in control of many things in our lives. We think that by using mere intelligence we can manipulate the Chaos into some semblance of order, thereby minimizing our pain and fear, in hopes of gaining some power in our lives. The more we try to Control, the more we bumble our way through, never quite able to find the comfort that we think Control will provide. We push and shove and fight and run and scream and holler and pitch our puny human fits, all the while losing our grip on the slippery slope of Chaos.

It just doesn't work.

There are moments when we think we've got it. We fool ourselves for a second or five, believing that we do, indeed, have Control and the world seems a more tolerable place. Our fears are reduced to little more than pesky annoyances, like swarming gnats that fly in your face but never take a bite outta you. Our sense of stability seems to grow a little, as if we've had a week's worth of Power Bars in a day's time. We breathe more deeply, smile more often, and laugh at the things that, mere moments ago, terrified us.

And then...out of nowhere, something happens to demolish the whole peaceful facade. We get in a car crash or we lose our job or the person we thought was a friend turns out to be the ultimate traitor. The feeling of Control flies out the window in a New York second (which, by the way, is much faster than an ordinary second. New York is funny that way), leaving us right back where we started: out of control and tumbling through the Chaotic Spiral, as if we were surfing the Big Kahuna and a Great White Shark just ate our board.

Big Trouble.

As the waves of Chaos turn us upside down, inside out, this way and that, we struggle to grab hold of something, anything, to keep us from going down again. We gasp for air, even as the panic rises in our throat, nasty bile that threatens to expel our last meal all over the sandy white beaches of our imagined paradise. Chaos has won the war and Control has fled the battle field like an army of cowards.

Here we go again.

But what if the whole battle between Control and Chaos is merely our own illusion of what they really are. I mean, what if Control isn't really control at all. Nor Chaos really chaos. What if the entirety of the Universe, god included, is really not at all controlled or chaotic? What if one is the other, and vice versa? What then?

If we were to lose the illusions of either, we might then realize that there is no need to struggle for the one (Control) or struggle through the other (Chaos). If we really knew that there is only order, only oneness, only harmony as we walk through each moment of our lives, perhaps there wouldn't even be a need for the words to define them at all. We could just remove them from our vocabulary. No more “Control”. No more “Chaos”. Kinda like the way words that were once used by the great bards of times gone by are no longer part of our vocabulary now. Words like 'thee' and 'ere' and 'ebon' and 'anon'. Who uses those words now? Mostly...nobody. They're as gone as Shakespeare, dead and buried in the poetic recesses of their own little coffins.

I say we bury 'Control' and 'Chaos' too. I say we give up the illusion, let go the reins, and let that Stallion of Spirit fly in the wind. We are one with the essence of Life. We are It and It is us. There is no separation. There is no bearded guy in the sky. There are no 'special ones' who have a Hot Line to the Cosmos. We are all special. We are all gods. We are all powerful and wise and fully capable of surfing the Big Kahuna, with or without a board.

Put another way, God cannot exist without Us. Nor we without It. So how about we let go of the whole idea of Control and Chaos, and just BE. Isn't that what living is all about anyway?

A Blossoming Being

Life can be as joy-filled or terrifying as we think it to be. In other words, what we think is what we LIVE. Any way you look at it, it's all about CHOICES. And, it is this Blossoming Being's opinion that JOY is the ONLY choice. No matter where you are or what you are facing today, if you look in the direction of JOY, everything will change. Well...maybe not everything. But I can promise you this: Joy is a CHOICE. Suffering is OPTIONAL. You make the call.